Upstart pie-eater Barry Rigby won this year’s World Pie Eating Championship at Harry’s Bar in Wigan, England (it’s near Manchester, which really seems to be the epicenter of Pie News lately). The esteemed competition was marred with a doping scandal and a dollop of economic reality. This year there was no gravy for the meat pies. Contestants had been using the gravy as a regulation lubricant, but recently allegations of spiking the gravy with cough syrup to make the all that beef, potato and pastry go down a bit easier by “lubricating the throat”. Gross! Not only was cough syrup banned from this year’s competition, but gravy was out too. As if that scandal were not enough, the local bakery that had supplied the infamous “Wigan Pies” closed earlier this year. That meant out-of-town pies from Bowen’s Bakery in Adlington had to be brought in and longtime competitors were not pleased. These pies are, allegedly, harder and larger than the local Wigan variety. We’ll never know if it was the lack of gravy or the larger girth that led to an almost 10-second lag time in pie consumption. As dire as the situation in Wigan was, it paled in comparison to two years ago, when Charlie the dog ate all the competition pies. Regardless, congrats to Barry who finished his pie in 45 seconds!